Eastwick: No Closure for Cancelled ABC Show; Who’s at Fault?

Published: November 12, 2009

There’s some more bad news for fans of ABC’s Eastwick. Not only has the series been cancelled but the last episode is going to leave several storylines unresolved.

Eastwick follows a trio of ladies (Rebecca Romijn, Lindsay Price, and Jaime Ray Newman) from a New England town who discover that they have supernatural powers, thanks to a handsome newcomer, Darryl Van Horne (Paul Gross). The rest of the show’s cast includes Ashley Benson, Johann Urb, Jon Bernthal, Sara Rue, and Veronica Cartwright.

The series struggled from the very beginning of its run, mustering just a 3.0 rating in the demo and 8.5 million viewers for its premiere. The second week fell to a 2.3 rating and 6.57 million. Things got even worse after that. Last week’s episode hit a series low of a 1.5 and 4.4 million viewers.

Based on these numbers, it comes as little surprise that ABC decided to cancel the struggling drama after 13 episodes. On the bright side, it looks like all of the installments will air. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like fans will be getting any closure for the many ongoing storylines.

In an interview with EW, executive producer Maggie Friedman said that she was furious over the cancellation. She said, “We have such an amazing group of writers and actors — best people I’ve ever worked with. None of us can believe this is really happening.”

Who's responsible for Eastwick's lack of closure?

Of the possibility of closure, Friedman said, “We’re smack in the middle of several insanely juicy stories. And so we do not get a chance to wrap things up in a bow. Which is killing me.”

She concluded, “The magic was getting crazy, the storylines were getting really exciting and sexy and dangerous… I [just] wish we could’ve given the fans — and ourselves — real closure.”

While it’s unfortunate that ABC has cancelled a series that millions of people enjoy, it’s no secret that the show has been on the chopping block for some time.

The network gave full season orders to its most of its freshman shows a month ago and Eastwick was left out. Coupled with the terrible ratings, just about everyone who follows the industry knew that Eastwick was on borrowed time. Why was Friedman so surprised by the cancellation?

Other shows who’ve been on shaky ground have found a way to give some closure while leaving some loose threads, just in case the show was renewed. Shouldn’t that have been the case with Eastwick?

What do you think? Who’s to blame for Eastwick’s lack of closure? ABC, the writers, or just plain old black magic?

Really enjoyed the show. It was fun and different. Very sorry to hear it was cancelled. It was the one show that I memorized what night it was on so I wouldn’t miss the next episode. We have too many reality TV shows.

Canceled! Are you kidding? Finally, as show worth watching and you’ve canceled it!!! This BLOWS!! I’ve been waiting for months for the next season – Bring it back, ABC – with all the same actors. They were great.
Instead you’ve decided to air a half dozen reality shows from Hell and two episodes in a row of “The Middle” – talk about a need for cancelation. What are you guys thinking??

ABC – Your Executives are tool bags. Like TRoberts a few days ago said. We don’t have to stay glued to the tube if we want not to miss a show like we did generations ago. I have my computer record and I play back and watch at my leasure. If I’m bored at work I can tunnel VPN into my computer at home and watch those shows on a tiny window on my screen. I sometimes forget to set a series to record or realize a day, a week, a month later that a show I wanted to see was on… So then I’ll fire up Hulu, or Boxee or IMDB etc – or and bring the show to me. HOW DO YOU COUNT THAT? WHat about the millions who download via P2p networks? I get it you lose out on the revenue but only because your are just as stupid as the RIAA & the dusty old Recording Industry.

I don’t mind watching your commercials when I go and watch movies on your website. But THIS IS GENERATION X & Y you are targeting now. WE WANT WHAT WE WANT & WE WANT IT NOW. I want to take your shows on the go on my Ipod, Zune, Laptop, Zip Drive and watch it on the bus, train, in the office, while I’m on break, or sitting in the toilet.

Many of the shows you have had FAR FAR bigger audiences that you realized or tapped into. You can’t count via your old Nielson family or Tivo metrics.

ABC says they will finally air the remaining two episodes of Eastwick. But true to form, the currently plan to show them out of order! Episode #13 “Pampered and Tampered” followed by Episode #11 “Red Bath and Beyond”. What a bunch of morons!http://abc.go.com/shows/eastwick

I agree with the above comment. Not only that, but some people have to work at night. They can’t make it and have to go online the next day to places like Hulu.com to see what happened the night before. It’s a sad but ridiculous fate for most good things now a’day.

Does anyone take into account how many of us viewers use our DVR for everything?! I’m not always in the mood at the exact time it’s on or I may not even be home at that time, but it doesn’t mean I don’t love the show. There must be a better way to tell if the show is popular than by counting how many tv sets are tuned in at that exact moment….sigh.

Eastwick was the best! It was about the only show in the 10 o’clock time slot that I watch on ANY channel. I used to watch Numb3rs and CSI Miami, which are both great shows, but I got too far behind and had too many other shows to watch, so those two got removed, but Eastwick was going to be on my favorites list for as long as it would run. I wish they’d be able to wrap things up and finish them out on Hallmark, where the show had moved to.

i take it by that remark you only like programmes that last ten minutes then eastwick was building up to be something really special a credit to the wrtiters and abc can go to hell let van horn sort them out